Performance Evaluation of Photovoltaic String with Compound Parabolic Concentrator

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) system is used to directly converting the solar energy into the electrical energy. Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) is a non-imaging concentrator which is considered in this study for reducing the cost of electrical energy. Two configurations are numerically studied namely one with simple typical flat PV string and the other PV string with CPC. The truncated CPC with concentration ratio of 2.3 and an acceptance angle of 41.75° is considered in the analysis of PV string with CPC (PV-CPC). Transient System Simulation Software (TRNSYS) is used for the evaluation of PV cell performance with and without CPC. The mathematical model for PV and PV-CPC is developed for the performance estimation of thermal and electrical characteristic of the system. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) code is written to solve the mathematical model and is linked with TRNSYS for simulation. The simulation is carried out for the average day of the months of June and December for Riyadh city. Results indicated that the use of the CPC increases the absorbed energy and electrical power output of PV system. The electrical power of PV string increases almost 35% when CPC is used with PV compared to simple typical flat PV string.